Automobiles are commonly used to transport personal items. However, due to the forces created by acceleration and deceleration, as well as centripetal or perceived centrifugal forces experienced during a turning motion of the vehicle, it is often desirable to have a way of securing items, to protect them from unwanted movement that may disturb, jostle, damage, or spill the contents of an item. Furthermore, there is a safety interest in securing items in a vehicle to prevent them from unexpectedly moving and causing injury to a passenger.
Various products and means of securing items in vehicles currently exist. Bags and boxes are commonly used to hold and secure items, although they are prone to sliding around and tipping over. Straps may be used to secure an item across the floor or wall of the vehicle, but they may be cumbersome to use, may not accommodate items of different shapes and sizes and the compressive forces exerted by a strap may serve to damage an item. As such, hanging or suspending an item over the floor of the vehicle may overcome the problems of sliding, tipping over, and damage caused by compressive forces that these other means are subject to.
There are various means for hanging or suspending items above the floor of a vehicle that are known in the art. One means may be a hanger attached to an internal hook of the vehicle, which may be useful for hanging or suspending clothes, but may not be used to secure a wide range of other objects. A typical car seat headrest may provide a convenient point to attach an apparatus for hanging or suspending an object. It is known to attach an apparatus with open-ended hooks to the backside of a headrest, to provide points to hang items from. However, open-ended hooks may only be suitable to hang items that have straps or handles. Furthermore, hanging an item from a single hook does not prevent the item from swinging back and forth during motion of the vehicle. Additionally, many such apparatuses providing hooks do not provide any mechanism to adjust the height of the hook, which further reduces the sizes of objects they are capable of accommodating. Lastly, an open-ended hook may be capable of impaling a passenger or poking them in the eye in the event of an abrupt stop of the vehicle, and therefore presents safety concerns as well.
Thus, it would be desirable to develop an improved apparatus for suspending, securing, holding or hanging items in a vehicle from a headrest, that can accommodate a wide range of objects, is safe, adjustable in height, and that substantially eliminates or minimizes the movement of the object relative to the vehicle.